


Blurred Lines

by Cajuzinhoinho



Series: BrArg Week 2020 [4]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Bad Communication, BrargWeek2020, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Roomates, a lot of domestic bs, brargweek, omg they were roomates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:48:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27743995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cajuzinhoinho/pseuds/Cajuzinhoinho
Summary: Having a friend with benefits can work, if both are smart enough to know when and where to draw the lines, and to never cross them. With Luciano and Martin, there never seemed to have had a line in the first place.
Relationships: Argentina/Brazil (Hetalia)
Series: BrArg Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025860
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Blurred Lines

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to @ottomanliest for proofreading!

Luciano wasn’t the best at seeing what was right in front of him. 

It started so innocently he couldn’t even notice. He couldn’t pinpoint with any certainty the first look that could’ve been a sign of what was to come. The first awkward silence, the first accidental touch of fingers as both he and Martín reached for their toothbrushes in the cup.

It probably started a little after they had been assigned a room together, reluctantly sharing that tiny place in the university building, two single beds separated by no more than a meter, one bathroom and one tiny fridge. They knew each other beforehand, but to say they were friends was a stretch. They hung out with the same group of mutual friends sometimes and played football together. That was all. 

Now Luciano could hear Martín snoring, Martín could hear him sleep-talking. They brushed their teeth together every morning side by side because they both always woke up a little too late to take turns.

Luciano started to notice innocently enough too. One morning Martín finished brushing his teeth before Luciano, and left the bathroom still as sleepy as he was every morning, but as he did so he gave Luciano’s shoulder a friendly squeeze that was almost like a caress. Only then he yawned a “Buenos Días” and went back to their room. 

-

Sharing a room sometimes meant getting dressed in front of someone else  —  that was a given. Neither of them were ashamed of their bodies, so it wasn’t a problem either. Luciano was used to it and didn’t mind.

But he did notice Martín stealing one furtive look or two. He knew Martín would hide his face in his cell phone or in a book if Luciano turned to him, but that he would look at his back out of the corner of his eyes when he thought he wouldn’t get caught.

It would’ve been easy to make fun of him, to tease him, to angrily ask what he was looking at, or to simply just change in the bathroom instead. Luciano entertained each possibility a few times, some more than others, but decided every time he didn’t mind Martín looking.

-

There was a storm one night that caused a power outage. It was too early to sleep, but they couldn’t leave the room. It was cold, too.

Martín turned his laptop on, checked the batteries, then turned to Luciano:

“Wanna watch a movie?” His tone was casual, almost bored.

“We have no internet.”

“Duh, I know.” He scoffed as he opened his drawer, searching for something using his phone’s flashlight. “I still have some DVDs from when I was a kid. I don’t know why I brought them, but they’re in a case here somewhere...”

Luciano sat on his bed and waited until Martín found his DVDs. For now, he really had nothing to do but watch the spooky shadows in Martín’s face created by the flashlight in the otherwise completely dark room, delineating his sharp profile in a strange way.

Most of Martín’s DVDs seemed to be boring black and white Argentinian movies, but thankfully he also had some cartoons Luciano also used to watch as a kid. They settled for the nostalgia trip after a bit of arguing that seemed to be present in everything they did. Martín moved his pillow and his blanket and his laptop to Luciano’s bed. It was definitely not meant to fit two grown men, but it was cold, so that wasn’t a bad thing. Martín felt warm and pleasant next to him, and Luciano couldn’t help snuggling a little closer.

They watched not one but two old cartoons, wrapped under two covers and laughing at the most memorable parts until Luciano fell asleep to the sound of heavy rain and Martín returned to his own bed. 

-

Luciano caught a cold the day after the storm. 

Martín didn’t say he was worried, didn’t say a word to soothe Luciano. If anything, his words were a bit meaner than usual.

But he brought tea, mug after mug of hot tea with honey, and gave him a threatening glare as he told him he’d better drink everything even if Luciano wasn’t particularly a fan of tea. At lunch and at dinner time he would bring soup too, and it didn’t taste like he had bought it canned. When Luciano suggested a tea blend his mother used to make him when he was sick, Martín went to find it without a word. 

Every now and then, Martín would sit by the bed and check his temperature with the back of his hand. His skin felt cold against his this time, and somewhere in his head Luciano thought he wouldn’t mind being sick for a little longer.

-

About a week later, their football team had an important game. They struggled a bit, but won, though neither Luciano nor Martín scored that day. Still, in the screams and jumps as they celebrated the victory goal, Martín pulled Luciano close to him and loudly kissed the side of his head. 

-

As their midterms approached, Martín’s mood got progressively worse. He wasn’t doing well enough in a few subjects and his stress was palpable, especially for Luciano. He noticed how restless Martín was, how much coffee he had been drinking and how every line on his back was stiff with tension.

There was not much Luciano could do to help, he had his own midterms to worry about. But when Martín came back late in the afternoon the day after his first test, throwing his things on the floor and sitting on his bed with his face buried in his hands looking utterly exhausted, he knew he had to do something. 

He sat next to him on the bed, put his hand on the back of Martín’s neck and tried to somewhat comfort him. Martín accepted it, perhaps too tired to move. 

Luciano began to rub circles with his thumb into his back, slow and tentatively. Martín sighed, uncovering his face from his hands. Luciano moved his own hands to Martín’s shoulders and pressed his fingers over the muscles, searching for the stiffest spots. His skin felt warm under his shirt, and the muscles resisted the touch at first but slowly relaxed into it. Martín kept his eyes closed, giving Luciano only quiet sighs and no words to discourage him from continuing. So he did, moving downwards and up again, following the responses from his muscles, taking time he didn’t know he had with each knot until he felt everything unlock under his hands. He gave a friendly pat on Martín’s shoulder and offered him a smile. 

“Do you want to order pizza or something? We could watch a movie or…”

Martín turned to him with wide, disbelieving eyes. Before Luciano could ask what was wrong, Martín pushed him on the bed and kissed him on the mouth.

\- 

They settled for being friends with benefits. Luciano suggested it, though he felt his stomach tense the second after he did. Martín looked at him weirdly, and agreed. It seemed like the easiest way to not risk too much, to keep it simple. They were barely friends anyway, so it seemed silly to jump into a relationship after one kiss  — even a kiss that turned into two and three and Luciano didn’t bother counting afterwards how many more.

Both had had friends with benefits before. It was easy to make it work as long as no one caught feelings, and although Luciano cared about Martín, he also cared about many people, so this wasn’t necessarily anything special.

-

The  _ benefits  _ part was easy. Kissing Martín, that was straightforward and simple. They had their room for it, and there was no reason to take any of it anywhere else. Going down on his knees on the ground for him, or on his knees against the mattress as Martín kissed the back of his neck, all of it was almost obvious. They didn’t have to think about it, their bodies flowed easily together, every touch filled with an undeniable chemistry. Then it was over, and that was where the problems began. 

They always did it in Luciano’s bed. The first times, Martín got up and went back to his own bed. But each day Martín stayed a moment longer, lying next to Luciano, stroking his hair, starting silly conversations. Luciano couldn’t say he didn’t like it, not when he could stare at Martín’s eyes — a dark green that depending on the light could go from a light brown to an almost translucent blue. Luciano noticed after a day or two  — and laughed at his witty remarks about a number of small things. 

Luciano could never tell how much time went by when they were like this. Still, Martín always got up eventually to sleep on his own bed. So it wasn’t too bad. 

\- 

They were a little worse at the  _ friends  _ part. 

In the mornings, Martín started to take a little longer to brush his teeth so that he and Luciano would be done at the same time. Then, he’d turn to steal a kiss with his fresh minty mouth, every day. 

He didn’t bother hiding anymore when he stared as Luciano got dressed. No, he smiled, whistled, and sometimes playfully pinched his waist and his ass if they were within reach. Luciano did nothing to stop him, unless winking and laughing and taking a little longer with each piece of clothing counted as discouraging the behavior. And well, when Martín got dressed, Luciano wasn’t too different in his reactions. 

-

One Friday night, Luciano’s friends texted him asking if he and Martín wanted to go clubbing with them, as they did every weekend as their primary source of fun. He told them he’d be busy studying. Martín said he had things to do too, that they should go without them. Then they snuggled together on Luciano’s bed and watched an old sitcom on Martín’s laptop until dawn.

Martín left his laptop on the ground and slept on Luciano’s chest that day.

\- 

Martín slept on Luciano’s bed every night for a whole week. 

-

So some lines were starting to blur. That didn’t mean anything had changed. Luciano and Martín never properly sat down to discuss their feelings, so he assumed nothing had changed. If Martín wanted a real relationship, he would say something. And Luciano would agree, but he was fine with what they had too. Martín would probably laugh at him if he was the one to suggest they could be something more. 

There was no reason to risk it.

But perhaps they were becoming a little too obvious. They hadn’t talked about keeping it a secret or anything, but they both seemed to want to keep things inside their four walls. But every now and then, there were some touches and kisses stolen in the halls. They were innocent, usually somewhat in private, or at least Luciano thought they were, until he was asked if they were a couple.

He looked at Martín, hoping he’d be the one to answer, or that his eyes could give him an answer, but he just stared back so Luciano stuttered:

“We’re just friends, right?” 

“Right.”

He couldn’t read Martín’s expression for the rest of the day.

\- 

Martín slept on his own bed that night. 

-

The next day, he came back to their apartment a little later than usual. He threw his backpack on the floor and walked over to Luciano, greeting him with an urgent, rushed kiss. Luciano kept his eyes open in surprise, but parted his lips and tried to match Martín’s pace.

“I want you.” Martín said, his voice harsh, stuck in his throat. 

“Right now?” 

“Now.” He confirmed, holding Luciano’s face firmer in his hand to kiss him again. 

Luciano complied, laying Martín on his bed, trying to slow him down a bit. He was acting weird, impatient but not in his usual, Martín way of being. His heart was beating too fast before they even kissed, his hands were trembling almost unnoticeably. 

Luciano was taken aback by all this. He would much rather sit with Martín and ask what was wrong, stroke his hair, maybe massage his back again, but Martín didn’t seem to be willing to do anything other than press his mouth to Luciano’s and wrap his legs around his waist to pull him closer. 

He played along at first, giving Martín what he asked for. Still, he tried to at least change their pace and held his wrists against the mattress when he first pushed into Martín’s body so that he could take his time, do it patiently, carefully. He knew that was what Martín liked anyway — to be loved slowly, intensely but gently, with attention to details — so Luciano couldn’t understand his unusual rush neither was he willing to humor it for too long. Eventually Martín relaxed under him and accepted it, wrapping his arms around Luciano’s neck and letting the slower rhythm undo him.

-

Luciano kissed Martín’s face and his hair when they were done as their breaths gradually returned to normal. He tried to pull Martín close and cuddle him like he had gotten so used to, but Martín avoided his arms and got up without a word, moving to his own bed to lay with his back to Luciano. 

He didn’t know what to make of that. He thought about leaving him alone to sulk, but the truth was that Luciano was hurt too. Staring at his back felt like a rejection even though they had just made love because Martín had asked and had wanted him. Moments ago he had had Martín warm and sweet in his arms, and though he was acting weird Luciano knew he was enjoying it, or he would’ve said something, right? Now, on his bed only a meter away, he seemed completely out of reach. 

Luciano got up and sat on the edge of Martín’s bed, unwilling to leave it as it was.

“What’s wrong?” he kept his voice low and soft. 

Martín remained silent for a long moment. Then he took a breath, and with his face still hidden from Luciano’s view, he said:

“I think we should end this. I’ll ask to move rooms tomorrow and — ”

“What? Why?” Luciano suddenly felt his whole body tense, his heart race, his mouth dry. “Did I do something wrong?”

“I’m just protecting you. You’re clearly catching feelings for me and the longer we keep this going the worst it will be.” 

His voice was firm this time, rehearsed.

“That’s it?” 

“Yes” 

“Then why did you… we were just… you said you wanted, you — ” Luciano paused, staring at the ground as he swallowed. His throat felt too tight to speak. “You could’ve at least had the decency to look me in the eye, you know? I don’t even believe you.”

“It’s just not working anymore…”

“Five minutes ago it seemed to be working just fine, so why are you saying these things now? Why isn’t it working?! Why are you — ”

“I’m in love with you,” Martín whispered, low as if he didn’t want to be heard at all.“That’s why it isn’t working.” 

Luciano went silent. 

-

“I wanted to… have one last time,” Martín realized he had said too much. Finally, he turned and looked at Luciano, frowning, “But this… sometimes it feels like we’re married and sometimes it’s like I’m disposable to you, and listen Luciano if you think I’m the type to be treated as anything less than — ”

Luciano laid down and wrapped his arms around Martín, with his chest against his back, and kissed the nape of his neck. That made Martín stop talking. 

“When did I make you feel disposable?” he whispered as sweetly as he could manage, but he knew there was hurt dripping from his voice.

Martín hesitated at first, shrugged, then answered.

“Yesterday, you said we were just friends and… it’s like you were mocking me in front of everyone… and that day, the day I kissed you, I thought we’d become real lovers but you insisted on being friends…”

“Then why did you agree?” Luciano kissed his neck again, twice. “I didn’t… want to pressure you. That’s all. I felt like you’d laugh to my face if I insinuated someone like  _ you  _ could ever… actually like me…”

Martín turned his face to him, with a deep frown and a very unpleasant expression, as if Luciano had just said some massive absurdity. 

“It’s true, I..” Luciano tried to continue, but he stumbled on the words. “I wanted to say you were my boyfriend yesterday, but we never talked about it and I… didn’t think you’d want that…” 

“I love you.” Martín repeated, this time not with hesitancy but annoyance. 

Luciano pulled him closer, as if Martín would try to run and disappear if he didn’t.

“I love you too, you know? You were right about that part... I’ve been catching feelings for… a while.” Luciano managed to smile. “I don’t think we’ve ever been just friends…”

Martín smiled too, turning his body so that they were face to face. 

“And who knows, maybe we can push the two beds together and…” Luciano ran his fingers through Martín’s hair as he spoke. “ Though I kinda like sleeping like this…”

Martín laughed warmly. Luciano should’ve known being friends with benefits with his roommate would quickly lead to the blurring of all the lines. Maybe one day he’d start to see the things that were right in his face. 

**Author's Note:**

> people who read and dont leave comments and ugly and i don't like them


End file.
